Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band’s Kogun

A study of the 1974 album Kogun by the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band this book assesses not just its importance in jazz history but also its part in public remembrance of World War II in Japan.In 1974 a Japanese soldier emerged from the Philippine jungle where he had hidden for three decades unconvinced that World War II had ended. Later that year the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band released its first album Kogun (solitary soldier) the title track of which adopted music from medieval Japanese no theater for the first time in a jazz context as aural commemoration of his experience. At a time when big band jazz was mostly a vehicle for nostalgia and no longer regarded as a vital art the album was heralded as a revelation. Kogun elevated Akiyoshi''s reputation as a brilliant composer/arranger and earned Tabackin acclaim as a compelling versatile improviser on tenor saxophone and flute.